2016 EHR Incentive Program-Meaningful UseFor the 2016 EHR Incentive Program year (reporting in 2017), participants are required to meet two public health objectives (unless an exception applies), and AOA MORE provides support for the meaningful use public health objective for specialized registry reporting.

By enrolling in AOA MORE by Feb. 29, 2016, doctors demonstrate active engagement and declare intent to use AOA MORE as their specialized data registry for the 2016 program year. Doctors will qualify for this meaningful use objective even if their EHR vendor has not yet integrated with AOA MORE as CMS understands that not every EHR will be integrated all at once. AOA tracks EHR demand to determine which EHRs to integrate with AOA MORE.

To use AOA MORE to qualify for the meaningful use public health objective, follow these steps:

Keep the email confirmation of AOA MORE enrollment as documentation of your sign-up.

Start using the registry as soon as your EHR is registry capable.

Already enrolled in AOA MORE? Follow these steps:

If you did NOT receive an email on January 26, 2016, from AOA MORE documenting your name, NPI number and date of AOA MORE enrollment, please call 800.365.2219 so that records can be corrected

Keep a record of the email confirmation you receive from AOA MORE, documenting your enrollment and NPI number.

Start using the registry as soon as your EHR Is registry capable. You will receive email notification from AOA MORE with login information as soon as your EHR vendor integration is complete.

Jeffrey Michaels, O.D., AOA Quality Improvement and Registries Committee chair, says it's crucial that AOA members enroll by Feb. 29 to ensure they are included in the 2016 program year.

"This is a CMS rule, and I don't see them budging on the deadline," Dr. Michaels says.

2016 PQRS advantagesEarly enrollment in AOA MORE isn't only advantageous for meaningful use objectives, but also for 2016 PQRS collection for 2017 reporting. As EHR vendors integrate into AOA MORE, the registry streamlines doctors' PQRS data to show reliable, up-to-the-week compliance reports.

Once integrated, doctors can submit 2016 data to PQRS (in early 2017) through AOA MORE—even if they started the year doing traditional claims-based PQRS—and CMS will count doctors' registry-based PQRS. The registry's dashboard will help doctors track their PQRS numbers regularly, and will help in monitoring PQRS thresholds to ensure they are above 50 percent in order to meet CMS' guidelines for success.

AOA MORE is programmed to identify doctors' PQRS documentation dating back to Jan. 1. Even if doctors joined AOA MORE after Jan. 1, they still will be able to submit one year of data.

"AOA MORE has the ability to streamline PQRS for doctors of optometry to help avoid PQRS penalties by CMS. Those penalties are growing over the next several years," Dr. Michaels says. "The AOA brought this registry to the profession at the perfect time to ensure our members are being taken care of in this health care paradigm."